


Cheek Painted Red

by wordsaplenty



Series: VLD Whump Week [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 17:57:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11903121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordsaplenty/pseuds/wordsaplenty
Summary: Keith squeezed his eyes shut, trying to breathe through the flair of pain arcing through his side and lower back.  This wasn’t good.  He couldn’t keep quiet any longer. He needed to let Shiro know.**Belated entry to VLD: Whump Week: Day 3: Near Death and/or Blood Loss





	Cheek Painted Red

Keith and Shiro were just supposed to drop off supplies and then get out. Nothing fancy, no negotiating with the natives, no diplomacy needed, just land, unload supplies, and leave. They were able to touch down and unload the supplies. When they tried to leave, that’s when things decided to go sideways.

“Well, space pirates definitely explains the lack of civilians,” Shiro grunted as he struck out at another “space pirate.”

Keith just huffed in response, busy swinging his bayard at the two pirates in front of him. Taking care of them would have been simple, if it weren’t for the nearly infinite number of pirates still left around them. The pirates had a mix of swords and guns. The guns were weird. They didn’t quite shoot lasers or projectiles, some weird mix of the two. Though he hated to admit it, there was no way they could hold out against them till reinforcements arrived.

The other paladins were off on similar missions to drop off supplies to nearby planets. It would be awhile before anyone could get to them.

Looking around they didn’t have many options. The village seemed to be deserted but if they were to go in there the pirates would be able to track them and corner them easily.  
There was a forest to their left that seemed promising. Trees close together would make it hard for a large group to get through. As much as Keith hated the thought of running away, the forest seemed like their best bet.

“Shiro!” Keith called out, after knocking down another pirate only for him to be replaced by two more. When he had Shiro’s attention he nodded toward the forest. Shiro understood immediately.

In sync the two paladins took out the pirates they were currently facing off with before turning and sprinting for the forest.

With his longer stride Shiro quickly pulled ahead, zig zagging to avoid the shots that were raining down on them. Keith was close behind. The forest was just ahead. Glancing over his shoulder Keith’s eyes widened in terror.

“Shiro!” Keith launched himself, tackling Shiro to the ground. Shots from multiple guns flew over their heads and burned holes in the trunks in front of them.

Keith’s side was slightly burning. No time to worry about it, gotta keep moving. Keith pushed up from the ground, dragging Shiro up with him.

“Keep going!” Keith groaned, pushing Shiro ahead of him. Shiro didn’t need to be told twice and took off once more, finally making it into the forest. Keith lagged behind, gingerly pressing his hand to his right side. It stung but didn’t feel too bad. He’d have to take a look at it later, now they had to focus on getting as far away from the space pirates as possible.

The paladins weaved through the trees, the thump of the pirate’s boots getting quieter and quieter the further in they went. They kept moving. When they could no longer hear the sounds of the pirates behind them the two paladins slowed to a jog and then to a walk.

“We should find shelter, some place to hide while we wait for back up. If we’re lucky they gave up and just took the supplies, but if we’re not it’s better for us to have some kind of cover,” Shiro stated looking around the forest, hoping to spot some place for them to rest.

Keith was too busy trying to slow down his breathing to respond. Hunching forward, grabbing his knees he tried to focus on taking slower, deeper breaths. Maybe he was worse off than he thought. It shouldn’t be this hard to breathe. 

“Keith!” Shiro ran back to him, hands immediately taking him by the shoulders, attempting to get a look at his face.

“Keith, are you okay?”

Without meeting his eyes Keith shrugged out of Shiro’s hold and stood up a bit straighter.

“I’m fine,” he panted, “just needed a moment to catch my breath.”

Keith could tell Shiro wasn’t convinced, but thankfully he let it drop, for the moment. While he was catching his breath he had realized that his suit wasn’t wet with sweat. 

Thankfully his dark body suit was hiding the bleeding, for now. Still, now wasn’t the time to focus on his injury. Yes it hurt, yes it was bleeding, but they had other things they needed to focus on. He was fine, or at least he would be. Right now what mattered was finding a place to wait for the other paladins.

“Let’s go find some shelter while we can,” Keith said, pushing Shiro in front of him, hiding the wince as he strained his side. Shiro didn’t argue the point, to which Keith was very grateful. 

They continued their walk through the forest, eyes peeled for a place to rest and to hide until the other paladins could come. 

Keith was beginning to think that maybe he should mention the stinging, burning sensation in his side. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep himself upright. Looking around, desperate to find something, anything, his eyes landed on something off to their left. He grabbed Shiro’s shoulder. When he had Shiro’s attention Keith simply raised his arm and pointed off to their left. A cave!

“Perfect!” Shiro said. The paladins moved toward the cave, cautiously peering through the opening. The cave seemed to be empty but it was best to double check, just in case. Shiro went in first, doing a sweep of the cave. It wasn’t too deep and there were no other passages to explore.

“This’ll have to do,” Shiro said, looking back at Keith who had stopped at the entrance of the cave, slightly hunched around his right side.

“Keith, you okay over there,” Shiro asked, slowly making his way over to Keith.

Keith squeezed his eyes shut, trying to breathe through the flair of pain arcing through his side and lower back. This wasn’t good. He couldn’t keep quiet any longer. He needed to let Shiro know.

“I think…”

“Yo Shiro, Keith you guys there?” A voice sounded through their comms. 

“Lance, tell me you’re close,” said Shiro. Keith was only half listening. He had managed get his breathing under control, and was focusing on keeping it that way.

“We’ll be there soon, half an hour tops,” Pidge chimed in. 

Was the cave moving? Why was the cave moving? Keith had to take his hand from his side and use it to brace himself against the cave wall. That’s not good.

“Get here as soon as you can. We’ve lost the pirates for now but I’m not sure how much longer we can hide out.” 

“On it boss! Lance out!”

The others would be here soon. He could hold on a bit longer. No need to worry Shiro, he had more important things to worry about. Someone should be keeping watch for the  
space pirates, was anyone keeping watch?

Keith looked up and was startled to see Shiro standing directly in front of him.

“…eith, …at’s enough…going on…th you?”

Shiro wasn’t making sense. Keith tried to focus on Shiro, tried to focus on what he was saying. But the more Keith stared at Shiro’s face, the more unfocused it became. He shook  
his head, hoping that would somehow clear it. That’s when he noticed his hand. His hand that was keeping him from falling down completely. His hand that was pressed onto the cave wall. His hand that was leaving a red streak on the wall.

“Oh.” Keith couldn’t stop looking at his hand. He shifted it along the wall and it left behind a splash of red. It was as if he were painting the wall of the cave. There was just so much red.

“…it! Keith!” Shiro was suddenly much closer than he had been before. 

Shiro’s hands were cradling his face. Keith used the last of his energy to move his hand from the wall to Shiro’s cheek.

Shiro was still saying something but Keith’s mind couldn’t process it. His hand slipped from Shiro’s face, painting it red just like he’d painted the cave wall.

“Sorry Shiro.” His legs gave out and Keith was heading toward the ground. Something soft broke his fall. Black started to creep around the edges of his vision. The last thing he saw before black covered everything was Shiro, eyes frantic, mouth moving, and cheek painted red.

***

Twig arms and an annoying voice met Keith when he was next coherent.

“Oh mullet are you in for a talkin to!”

Keith hoped Lance could feel the glare he was sending his way from where he was leaning against the blue paladin, having just fallen out of a healing pod.

“Lucky for you old Lance here will go a lot easier on you than others. Pretty sure Pidge has a knuckle sandwich with your name on it!”

“You’re just making up words,” Keith grumbled. Feeling steadier he pushed away from Lance, glare in full effect. 

“Look, I’ll level with you mullet. You messed up. Uh uh you don’t get to interrupt.” Lance shoved his hand over Keith’s mouth preventing him from speaking.

“It is Lance’s turn to lecture and lecture I shall! Do you have any idea what you put Shiro through, hum? Instead of just, I don’t know, telling him that you’d been shot, you decided the best thing to do would be to say nothing at all. What is wrong with you, you, quiznak!” Lance grabbed Keith by the shoulders and shook him back and forth to emphasize his point.

“I don’t see what the problem is,” Keith grumbled as he pushed Lance away.

Lance sighed, shoving his fingers through his hair roughly.

“Look, you were unconscious so you didn’t see…when he carried you outta the forest, man I never wanna see anything like that again.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Keith said, exasperated.

“It really was,” Lance insisted. “Shiro, he looked devastated. You were just, completely limp in his arms. You were both covered in blood and I mean literally covered in blood. It was all over Shiro’s face and arms and that wasn’t even the worst part.”

Keith could see how that didn’t look too good but honestly he’s obviously fine now so it really shouldn’t be that big of a deal, right?

Lance was staring at Keith. Keith was staring at Lance. Lance looked like he was waiting for Keith to say something. Keith was completely clueless about what Lance wanted him to say.

Lance let out an annoyed growl. “Ask what the worst part was you quiznak!”

Keith rolled his eyes but did as Lance asked.

“Finally,” Lance mumbled to himself. “The worst part was the look on Shiro’s face. I have never seen him look so lost or scared, like ever. Dude, we thought you were dead right then and there and Shiro, he was devastated. Do you get that? Do you get how upset we all were? Especially Shiro. He thought you were going to die and he was already blaming himself.”

Keith hadn’t thought about it that way at all. But hearing it from Lance he could see how Shiro would think that. 

“It wasn’t his fault,” he said, looking up at Lance.

Lance took a step back and folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not the one you should be telling that to.”

***

Keith wasn’t sure what surprised him more, the fact that he had listened to Lance and gone to look for Shiro, or the fact that Lance was right.

Keith made his way to Shiro’s room after his talk with Lance. When he knocked and called out to Shiro he got no answer. Trying the door Keith was happy to find that it was unlocked. 

Inside the room was dark. It took a moment for Keith’s eyes to adjust and when they did he found Shiro, curled up on his bed, his back facing Keith.

Keith didn’t know what to say, or how to start. Usually Shiro would start the conversation but he hadn’t moved yet and seemed content to continue ignoring him.

“Shiro?”

Shiro started and jumped out of bed. Well, he tried to jump out of bed. His legs got tangled up and he ended up falling out of bed. Luckily Keith was ready. He got under Shiro  
and managed to break his fall, with his body.

“Ow!” Keith huffed out, all the air leaving his lungs in one blast.

“Keith! Quiznak, are you okay?” Shiro asked, untangling them and pulling Keith up so they were both sitting on the bed.

“I’m fine. The real question is, are you okay?”

Keith watched Shiro’s face go through a few different emotions in a very short time. He seemed confused one second, then annoyed, and finally angry.

Shiro stood up and began pacing next to the bed.

“You want me to be honest Keith? No, no I’m not okay!” Shiro practically shouted, coming to a stop in front of Keith.

Keith jumped up immediately and moved to take a closer look at Shiro.

“What, were you hurt? Lance didn’t say anything about you getting hurt!”

Shiro shoved Keith’s hands away. Keith stepped back, confused. He just wanted to make sure Shiro was alright, why was he so upset?

Shiro seemed to gather his thoughts before looking back at Keith.

“What you did back there, on that planet, can never happen again.”

“What do you mean, if I hadn’t done it then you’d be the one getting out of the healing pod,” Keith pointed out. Obviously that would be worse.

“We’re supposed to be a team,” Shiro said sadly. “Teams look out for each other yes, but they also lean on each other. You’re just as important as I am Keith.”

Keith thought it over and yes, Shiro had a point. Teams were supposed to lean on each other. But if he had done that then Shiro would have been in even more danger than he  
already was. He told his as much.

Shiro placed his hand on Keith’s shoulder, making sure he caught his eyes and had his full attention.

“I know you think you did the right thing. And thank you for protecting me. But it’s my job to protect you too. If you had told me as soon as possible I could have stopped the bleeding and you probably would have been awake when Lance came stumbling out of his lion instead of looking like you were seconds away from dying. Which, in case you’re wondering, you were.”

Keith thought about this for a moment.

“I still think I did the right thing. If it kept you safe, I don’t see how it could be wrong.”

Shiro sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair and down his neck.

“Things need to change Keith. You can’t just place your life behind everyone else’s anymore.”

“But if it keeps you, or the others safe then I don’t see what the problem is,” Keith argued. 

He really didn’t understand. Everyone else was more important than him. Hunk provided for everyone. Pidge could science them out of any situation. Lance brought a sense of fun and family. Shiro, Shiro was the heart of the group the leader. And Keith? He was the risk taker, he was expendable because everyone else had a much more defined role than him and he was fine with that. That’s just the way it was.

“Oh Keith,” Shiro said, pulling him to his chest and hugging him tightly. “Your safety and wellbeing is just as important as everyone else’s. I know you don’t believe it now, but I’m not going to stop reminding you until you believe it yourself. 

Keith didn’t think Shiro would ever be able to change his mind. But right here, right now, he leaned into Shiro’s embrace and for a moment thought that maybe he was important after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure how graphic my depictions of violence were but I figured better safe than sorry.
> 
> Comment if you like.


End file.
